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India kicked off its 65th year of independence this week by unveiling ambitious plans to send a mission to Mars by the end of next year. Standing beneath the looming, 17th century Red Fort in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that the government had approved the Mars Orbiter Mission, which aims to send a spacecraft near the surface of the Red Planet to collect information. He called the program “a huge step for us in the area of science and technology.”

Though the news may have lost some thunder after the successful landing of the Curiosity rover, it does show the kind of ambition and big thinking that many wish the Indian government displayed more often. India’s space program has managed to get a lot done, despite operating at a proposed budget of $1.34 billion this year (by comparison, NASA’s 2013 budget is $17.7 billion). Started in the 1960s, India’s program has developed a successful satellite regime and is currently preparing its first manned mission to space. In 2009, the program pulled off a major coup in the international community when its first lunar mission, in cooperation with NASA, detected water on the surface of the moon.

Critics in India immediately reacted to yesterday’s news by questioning the priorities of an administration willing to spend billions of rupees in space when so much needs to get done on the ground. Just weeks ago, the government had the embarrassing distinction of overseeing the largest power outage in human history. It was an event that, while more shocking to people outside India than people who live there, was symptomatic of wider systemic problems contributing to India’s economic slowdown. In his Independence Day speech, Singh also acknowledged these challenges. “If we do not increase the pace of the country’s economic growth, take steps to encourage new investment in the economy, improve the management of government finances and work for the livelihood security of the common man and energy security of the country,” he cautioned, “it most certainly affects our national security.”

Others in the industry are saying the project is moving too fast. The Mars spacecraft is expected to launch in November 2013, a decision based on the planets’ positions at that time. “There is a small window in which we need to make a launch,” Kiran Karnik of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told CNN-IBN. But the current rocket technology that the agency plans to use could hamper the mission. The amount of equipment the craft would be able to take with it under projected conditions is “very meager,” former ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told CNN-IBN in the same interview. “I don’t think much useful science can be done.”

What they’ll try to do is gather information that will help study the possibility of life on Mars. It mirrors Curiosity, which, as Jeffrey Kluger wrote in TIME’s cover story on the rover landing last week, “will study the geology, chemistry and possible biology of Mars, looking for signs of carbon, methane and other organic fingerprints on a world that a few billion years ago was warm and fairly sloshing with water.”

So what, with data from Curiosity and six other rovers that have landed on Mars, can India’s new orbiter add to the mix? Plenty, says Artemis Westenberg, the president of Explore Mars, an international nonprofit dedicated to sending humans to Mars. “You’d think we’d have everything we need, but it’s not true,” she says. “We just threw a rover on Mars [carrying] 75 kg of equipment, but there are always 20 more things we would have liked to put on there … There’s always room for more.” There’s always room for something new too. Some of the equipment that is currently exploring the Red Planet is dated. “It might have been state of the art in 2000, but it’s not state of the art in 2012,” says Westenberg. “Are you still using your five-year-old phone?”

No, and many argue that just as outdated is the idea that India should curb its pursuit of state-of-the-art technology. “You don’t have to be wealthy to want to climb Mount Everest. Poverty has got nothing to do with the human urge to explore, to push boundaries, to go where no man has gone before,” Susmita Mohanty, founder and CEO of Earth2Orbit, India’s first private space start-up, writes in an e-mail. “It is important that we build our own satellites and have our own rockets to launch them. Information is power, so is communication, and satellites are key to both. They are a necessity, not a luxury.”

They’re also an investment. Space programs have always captured attention in a way that other government-run programs can’t. Just as Curiosity’s landing came at a sweet spot for President Obama in his tough re-election campaign, so might a widely celebrated mission to Mars prove handy in India to the Congress-led government a few months before general elections are scheduled in 2014. And to take the longer view, is $80 million — the estimated cost of the Mars orbiter — so much to spend to spark the imagination of an entire generation of children? “Spending $70 million or $90 million on a science project is not a bad idea if you want to keep your youth interested in technology,” says Westenberg. “One in 7 people on the planet right now is Indian. I think that’s pretty cheap.”

Americans might not like it but the world is flat now. Competition is global. If you cant keep up move to a country where the levels are lower. Lots of Latin American and African countries would be eager to take in out of work Americans just for their English skills. No one says you have to live out your entire life where you were born. If you dont have the work ethic to survive in the new American economy why stay and be miserable. Go somewhere where life is slower and you will be valued.

I think it's great that India dares to dream big, and science is an obvious growth vector for the future. However, they need to start regulating antibiotics before they kill all of us with drug-resistant bacteria.

I don't think many people in India really care about the cost of it. But i think this is more of a political thing vs a real science effort. The timeline they gave to develop this is very small and India does not have the advanced rockets yet like china to put anything big in space.

Also the task is not a easy one. Out of all the missions to mars only a handful have worked out.

But it does seem kind of strange to want to go to mars to do nothing while your power grid system failed for half of the country?

If you look at history the space programs have been used as a way to take political pressure off of other issues. The United States did it during the 60s and all of the massive problems it had at the time seemed all better when we landed on the moon. It tends to give a country pride to do such a great thing. And makes people forget about a lot of problems at least for a short time. The USSR did the same thing with it's space program.

This is always a huge political gamble. If they do lunch this and it fails that was 80 million dollars up in smoke. And people will wonder why did we spend that money doing that and not fixing other things.

Space will not really become useful to people for a while or until you have a great economic reason to put people in space. If we found a lot of oil on the moon in the future so many people and countries would be in space it would not even be funny.

It is so discouraging to see that everything India or Indians do that can be remotely (60-80 Millions are nothing when you see comparatively) ambitious, is seen through the prism of poverty in India, and what we haven't achieved yet.

just think about that earlier exploration for new routes for India and china would have met with same criticism, yet Europe prospered after new route for business (and of course due to Imperialism).

Ours is a huge country with innumerable problems, one department does a good work another wastes, if one is doing fine then we should encourage it, rather writing disapprovingly towards it.

"Critics in India immediately reacted to yesterday’s news...": my job is in science, and we have to substantiate all statements we make in our publications with proper references. I accept that it is tough to be so rigorous while publishing in the print media, but does that mean one can make statements not based on facts? Even in the TIME magazine? Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have come across no such criticism in the Indian print media, and the line of argument pursued in this article is emanating from Western news sources. I would be grateful if the author of this article can kindly point me to the statements by the said Indian critics she has referred to.

"Critics in India immediately reacted to yesterday’s news by questioning

the priorities of an administration willing to spend billions of rupees

in space when so much needs to get done on the ground."

My job is in science, where we have to substantiate all statements we make in our publications with proper references. But it seems that one can make up statements in the print media without bothering to base them on reality. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I haven't come across any such criticism from the print media in India, but have seen such statements from critics abroad.

I would be grateful if the author of this article can kindly point me to the statements of the "critics in India" she has mentioned.

What a stupid, illogical , irrelevant article, authors seems to be harbouring typical western cynical view on Science mastered by developing third world country. Nobody in India is complaining about this so called Mars mission, Science and ground Indian realities cannot be measured by the same variables, yes its true that India had systemic problem within its system and lot more need to be done at the grass root level. But author is forgetting the fact that India is young country (65 years) with deep ambition, in 65 years after Independence India had mastered appreciable levels of Space science, now progressing it to the next level, Mars is now the obvious possibility. This mission has nothing to do with politics , Science is universal premise for entire human race, though ISRO mission Mars will generate fraction of data compared to NASA Curiosity, but that fraction will be helpful in validating the facts about Martian environment.

All Manmohan Singh did was read script written by some one else, had he written the speech himself he would have delivered itcharged with energy, emotions and enthusiasm.This should not be difficult for P.M esp if such a speech is to be given once a year. 1 year is more than enough to prepare a good speech. and not just read a paper written by some one else in front of whole world

On Independence Day 1). PM promises to reduce corruption and ensure transparency in governance.2).P.M said India will soon come out of crisis.

MMS CANNOTspeak truth even for ONCE in an year on the Independence day.Manmohan SIngh is the WORST P.M ever, a SHAME for the country and an INSULT to the constitution of India.Manmohan should stop being pet dog of an Italian waitress, and protect the DIGNITY AND HONOUR of constitutional post of P.M and the constitutional duties . If he can't he should resign, no more MOCKERY AND INSULT of Indian constitution By an Italian Waitress

The real problem with this sudden new mission to Mars is that it's being pushed by the Prime Minister's Office more than by ISRO, for less than noble reasons.

India's ruling Congress party is dependent upon various coalition partners to survive, and has awarded these partners plum ministries in exchange for their support in parliament. One partner, the DMK party, used its control over the telecom ministry to carry out a lucrative scam that would have cheated the national treasury out of billions of dollars, by awarding satellite bandwidth at a pittance. When the scandal came to light, rather than pursuing prosecution of its vital coalition partner, the govt decided to protect them by creating a scapegoat. Dr Madhavan Nair, who was ISRO chief at the time of the inking of these deals, was turned into a fall guy and conveniently branded the main culprit, being blacklisted from future govt jobs despite strong protests and even resignations by senior colleagues. The respected Nair was most famous as a driving force behind India's successful Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon, which mapped much of its surface and discovered water there.

The destruction of Nair's career has had a powerful demoralizing effect on ISRO's scientific establishment, given the widespread knowledge that he had been turned into a sacrificial lamb so that corrupt ruling politicians could protect their own.

In the wake of this sharp blow to ISRO's morale, the PMO has suddenly decided to promote a new mission to Mars, as a sop to ISRO's beleaguered scientists. There is much more scientific benefit to India in prioritizing the Moon over Mars, but Nair's name is strongly associated with the previous Chandrayaan-1 success, and the govt is eager to put him and the Moon behind them.

India doesn't have the capability to accomplish anything meaningful with a mission to Mars, as it doesn't have the payload lift capacity to send anything useful there. Originally proposed as a meager 25-kg payload, technical limitations have forced the Mars payload weight to be further dropped down to a ridiculous 10 kg. With the launch window deadline for Mars coming up fast in 2013 due to planetary alignments, there likely won't be enough time to fully develop the Mars probe before then.

But such practical considerations are of no concern to India's corrupt ruling politicians, for whom even the heavens are not out of bounds to their political stuntsmanship.

Yes we have huge issues that need to be addressed, but that doesn't mean we ignore scientific progress. Studying the universe and understanding it is never unnecessary, what is not needed is bickering over why such things are needed. Humanity would be nowhere, if every single scientific development in human history was disputed on this basis.

@chippy1 you need it as 30% doctors are Indians ..your entire IT INDUSTRY is handled by Indians....india invests billions in American firms..so pls bro get your facts right..go and research ..this is not Vietnam..this is INDIA

I think you're absolutely wrong in criticizing the Indian PM. India has lot of problems but it is in fact because the congress led government that the country is still together otherwise it can split like the USSR. If you live outside the country then I can say good riddance and if you are lining in India then please get up from your lazy ass and do something positive for the country.

My comment on Islamic fundamentalism had nothing to do with India, except to contrast the admirably peaceful India with a less peaceful part of the world. In fact I only wish U.S. foreign policy was more like India's and less like the final days of the bloated warring Roman Empire. By the way, like your 72 virgins idea.

That is not the fault of science, that is the fault of political mismanagement. Science should not be made a victim of endemic corruption and incompetence. Cutting down on science to tackle starvation is not the answer, cutting down on corruption and mismanagement is.

@chippy1 why is that you westerners especially americans have this tinge up their ass when some country achieves something great ..booyah bitch....jlaous bitches talk about poverty and hunger....as they cannot undermine our scientific achievements as we have always been successful

What do you feed 563,490,000 Indians when you only have 300 pounds of wheat?Leftovers.What's the difference between an Indian toddler and a regulation NFL football?A football has to weigh at least fourteen ounces.What's the literal translation of the Hindi phrase for "take a shit"?"Nothing to do."

It is not new.... "The more India grows,the more India attains super-stardom,Pakistan's resentments grow with it.And it is relevant so long as it attaches itself to India as﻿ a parasite.The moment it leaves India behind,no one cares about Pakistan.Is there a single thing that Pakistan produces that we are in awe of? No there's nothing! Is there something Pakistan has that induces jealousy in us? Nothing! It really is a failed state and we only look to it because its a problem. It just wants our attention."...if you want to see the whole video...here is the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... ....However, it is just a matter of time...let Mr. Narendra Modi be the PM in 2014 election...mark my words...India will not restrain herself to attack Pakistan....